Friday, July 7, 2017

Femi Ojo-Ade: A Tribute to Francis Abiola IreleMemories. Prof, number one, the very first Nigerian full Professor of French in a national university, sent me a special invitation to his inaugural lecture at the University of Ibadan. I attended, arriving late at the hall just as he was making his opening remarks. He recognized my presence and the audience applauded. I was surprised at the gesture. I was number two, the second Nigerian Professor of French in a national university. I was and remain proud to come after him, the icon of Negritude, that controversial but essential movement the ideology of which cannot be wished away by any detractor. Negritude is flush with contradictions but its general representation lies at the core of African/black experience. Without pride in our identity, without anchoring our existence upon concrete culture, without pride in our blackness and readiness to affirm and confirm our color and culture and struggle for Black and Africa, we run the risk of dying psychologically and, yes, indeed, physically, under the jackboots of the self-proclaimed "civilized" masters of the increasingly daring acts of racism euphemistically called globalization. Negritude lives in every black movement of protest and resistance, in America, in Brazil, in Jamaica, in the United Kingdom, in every nook and cranny where children of Africa refuse to be silenced. Black lives matter

Securitizing Africa's borders is bad for migrants, democracy, and development

South Africa's new border management strategy has equivalents across the continent that likely do little to prevent smuggling and human trafficking or to stop terrorism – the justifications often used for such securitization. Instead, they help reinforce authoritarian leadership and undermine regional governance initiatives. In the longer term, they are likely to impact development. Free movement – within countries or to neighboring areas – is central to people finding work and surviving in these precarious times. Constraints on such movement, whatever the source, are fundamentally anti-poor and anti-freedom. They treat migrants as suspected criminals, rather than as people legitimately seeking protection or employment. Many of these policies are being implemented with aid from the European Union and strong domestic support. Countries like Eritrea already maintain a repressive "exit visa" system while Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Niger, and Sudan are all planning enhanced border management strategies, including bio-metric tracking and militarization......The vast majority of Africans who have no European fantasies will live in decreasingly democratic countries. The African Union and regional campaigns promoting development through accountable institutions and freer movement will also likely lead nowhere. The results – heightened inequality within and between countries, along with increased poverty and likelihood of conflict – will create precisely the pressures to migrate that Europe hopes to contain.

Smugglers are abandoning migrants in the middle of a desert the size of Texas

Until last year, Niger's military would escort smugglers' convoys to the Libyan border, raking in bribes along the way. An entire economy was born in the desert, with both smugglers and soldiers making money in a region where jobs had been scarce, or scarcely paid. More than 400,000 would-be asylum seekers traversed the Tenere in 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration. That was four times more than the year prior. Most were young men. Many only made it as far as Libya or Algeria, but 180,000 reached Italy last year. Some pushed north to even more prosperous countries like Germany. In October 2016, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a rare trip to Niger, which was followed by visits from the Italian and Dutch foreign ministers. They had one goal: to stem the flow of migrants. European countries pledged major development assistance funds if Niger would crack down on smugglers. Late last year, Niger began to enforce a new law criminalizing the smuggling business. Military and police officers were replaced at all desert checkpoints between Agadez and the Libyan border. Raids were conducted on migrant ghettos in Agadez, aiming to shutter the shadow smuggling economy. Migrants were given incentives to voluntarily return to their countries of origin.

Economic chaos fuels gold rush in war-torn S. Sudan

South Sudan, mired in conflict that's killed tens of thousands of people since December 2013, relies on oil production for almost all its revenue and hasn't officially exported any gold. While details on the country's mineral potential are scarce, Jersey-based Equator Gold Holdings Ltd. described it as the "world's most promising frontier exploration destination" and said its southern Luri project, suspended because of the war, may contain several multi-million ounce gold deposits.The Mining Ministry said June 1 that Dove Mining of Thailand and Panamanian company 4MB will begin the first official gold exports in September. They expect initial annual shipments to be worth $500 million, with about 55 percent of profits to be shared with the government in Juba and local administrations. Home to sub-Saharan Africa's third-biggest oil reserves, South Sudan has faced economic chaos after the conflict cut crude output and lower oil prices further reduced government income. "The country's economic activity is at a standstill. Oil is not taking off," said Lual Deng Lual, managing director at the Ebony Center for Strategic Studies, a Juba-based think tank. "Now people have turned to what is there." London-based Global Witness said it has received reports of increased South Sudanese gold trading. A June report on Uganda's gold trade by the advocacy group said that "minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan — that might be funding conflict and human-rights abuses — pass through Uganda on their way to international markets."

IFC investments implicated in land grabs in Africa

Displacement in Guinea by IFC funded FI: One case concerns the AngloGold Ashanti gold mine in Kintinian, Guinea which the IFC financed via a $140 million loan in 2007 for a minimum of 10 years to South African bank Nedbank for cross-border lending and capital-intensive projects, including for resource extraction. The IDI report found that in 2015 Nedbank supplied two-thirds of a $105 million general purpose loan to AngloGold Ashanti, the world's third biggest mining company. The study reported that 380 families were forcibly evicted in 2015-2016 with a further 150,000 people under threat of eviction whilst facing health risks from cyanide pollution of the local water sources. A community member interviewed by IDI said "I signed over my land with a soldier pointing a gun at me. I had no choice". Others told of being forcibly removed from their home, beaten and shot at by security and defence forces working at the behest of the mining company.

Al-Shabab won't be going away anytime soon

The group recently surpassed Boko Haram as the deadliest terrorist organization in Africa. But it's not the violence that's attracting followers. My recent field research in Kenya and Somalia, the two East African countries where al-Shabab is most active, suggests that al-Shabab is thriving because it's still offering a comparatively attractive alternative to the Somali government. It capitalizes on grievances, keeps areas secure and settles disputes, with relatively little corruption. That's especially attractive in undeveloped or remote areas that the fledgling government has neglected. As a result, al-Shabab is becoming a shadow government, positioning itself as Somalia's champion of disenfranchised and marginalized clans. Al-Shabab has deftly managed clan dynamics and provided basic services in ways that have brought it political power and influence throughout southern Somalia, especially the rural areas, where residents are wary of the still-fragile government.

Would an Independent Kurdistan be a Failed State?

In a July 4th article for Newsweek, Michael Rubin writes that "an independent Kurdistan would be a failed state." He argues that a host of problems would make the Kurdish state akin to South Sudan, Eritrea, Kosovo or East Timor. The problems that Rubin lists include water sharing disputes with neighboring states, contested borders, questions involving citizenship of Kurds in Iraq or Arabs in Kurdistan, economic difficulties, corruption, a Peshmerga "militia" "no different than Shiite militias," the personal rule of President Masoud Barzani, and Iran and Turkey's opposition to South Kurdistan's independence. All of this adds up to a somewhat strange argument, given that Iraq appears to be the failed state and the Kurdistan Region is where tourists, business people, foreigners, minorities, refugees and internally displaced people all go and feel safe. Was it not the Peshmerga, with only a fraction of the military hardware in the hands of the Iraqi Army, the Shiite militias and the Islamic State (ISIS), that performed most effectively against the ISIS jihadis? Was it not these same Peshmerga who completed all the military objectives set before them in the Mosul campaign by November of 2016? If autonomous Kurdistan, even while cut off from its share of the Iraqi budget since 2014, is so much more successful than Iraq, isn't it a bit peculiar to argue that Kurdistan – because of Rubin and company's pessimism – should remain a part of Iraq? Was there ever an independence movement only willing to move forward if no potential problems or major obstacles present themselves? Possibly – although we never heard of them because they never moved forward.

Catalonia to declare independence within 48 hours of a yes vote

THE people of Catalonia will go into their referendum on October 1 knowing that if a majority vote Yes, the Catalan Government will declare independence the following day, as soon as ballot papers are counted. Gabriela Serra, a member of the pro-independence coalition that governs Catalonia, said yesterday: "If the majority of votes are for creating a Catalan republic, obviously independence will have to be declared immediately." Serra was speaking as the Catalan Government formally began the process of extracting the region from the Spanish legal system, with the ruling coalition set to vote through the changes in the regional parliament next month.The law change is necessary because the Government of Spain have so far used court actions and legal cases to block the referendum which would ask the 7.5 million Catalonians one simple question. Catalonia has already paid homage to Scotland with the announcement of the question: "Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state in the form of a republic?" It is said to have been inspired by the question used in Scotland's referendum in 2014: "Should Scotland be an independent country?". Yesterday also saw the results of an opinion poll by El Confidencial which asked Catalans if they would vote in the referendum and if so, how would they vote. Some 70 per cent of those surveyed said they would vote, and of them 47 per cent would vote yes against 44 per cent voting no. The coalition in Barcelona said a new electoral body will be created under the incoming law in order to monitor the referendum process and eventually declare the winner. All citizens older than 18 years will be eligible to vote, including those living abroad – a condition which was not used in the Scottish independence or UK European referendums.